


Scraps and Oneshots

by ZimsMostLoyalServant



Category: Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, Invader Zim
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Anthology, Brainwashing, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cthulhu crossover is only in one chapter, Eldritch Abomination, Episode Related, Gen, Invader Zim comic series, Karma - Freeform, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Enter the Florpus, Randomness, Spoilers, ratings will vary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-05-13 21:03:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19259137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZimsMostLoyalServant/pseuds/ZimsMostLoyalServant
Summary: A collection of stories and ideas too short to stand on their own.Rated T just to be safe, actual ratings will vary between entries.





	1. A Change of Loyalties

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now this is something of an older idea of mine, a dumping ground for any short stories or basic concepts that I can't flesh out to the point of publishing them on their own. Admittedly I've only used it for that a few times since, but I think it's a nice little collection, worth sharing here on AO3.
> 
> This first entry is one I particularly like. Inspired by some pictures I saw on DeviantArt, the basic idea seemed too good not to use, but I was never able to work it out further than what's presented here.
> 
> Don't want to spoil anything, so I'll elaborate more at the bottom.
> 
> Read on!

Zim tapped the fingers on one hand against his armrest angrily, while the other held a compress against the rather large bruise forming under one eye. One nearly broken antenna twitched, partially in pain, and partially in anger as he remembered what happened.

He had decided to get back at Dib for all the times the large-headed dirt monkey had broken into his base and spied on him, by giving him a taste of his own medicine. During a time when Zim knew Dib would be out of the house at a meeting of the "Swollen Eyelids" or whatever they were called, Zim and his robots had stealthily broken down the front door of the Membrane house and entered, in order to plant spying devices of their own. Unfortunately, Zim had made one of his very rare mistakes: he had forgotten about Dib's sister.

Gaz had been in the house when Zim had broken in, and he had apparently made enough noise to distract her from her game… or maybe it was the door being thrown across the room and knocking the Game Slave out of her hands that had done it. Zim wasn't sure. What he _was_ sure of, however, was that Gaz had been _very_ angry with him.

Zim had honestly put up a good fight, but Gaz had a distinct height advantage (she'd grown enough over the past three-and-a-half years to stand almost a full head taller than Zim), and she was remarkably fast and strong for a human in her age group – especially one who didn't work out or even exercise, so far as he knew. Zim didn't even remember most of the short fight, and the next thing he knew he had regained consciousness on the sidewalk outside with Minimoose stuffed in his mouth and GIR in pieces around him (not that GIR seemed to mind).

After picking up the pieces, Zim had decided to temporarily abandon his spying plans and had limped home. Now, he was wallowing in anger while he waited for his wounds to heal.

"Stupid dirt monkey witch," he muttered, "When I'm done with the Dib-Stink, I will make her pay."

"Yeah, good luck with that," the Computer commented.

"And what is _that_ supposed to mean?" Zim hissed.

"Even if you do somehow beat Dib – and that's a pretty big if – then if you try and go after Gaz she'll probably just beat you senseless again."

"You dare mock Zim's combat abilities? !" Zim screeched, "That pig-smelly may have gotten lucky this one time, but-"

" _One_ time?" the Computer asked, sounding incredulous, "Master, I think you're forgetting the time you captured Dib and were going to turn him inside out, only for Gaz to show up, break him out, and then kick your _c'horta_ all over the place."

"…Oh, yeah, forgot about that," Zim muttered, cheeks flushing in embarrassment as he remembered that particular incident.

"Squeak!" Minimoose added from his spot on the other side of the room, where he was helping put GIR back together.

"How would you know?! I hadn't even built you yet!" Zim snapped at the floating WMD.

"And then there was that time she trashed that robot duplicate of Dib you built," the Computer continued, "Or that other time-"

"SILENCE!" Zim shouted, a nearby screen cracking from the volume.

A few moments of quiet followed, before the Computer dared to speak up again.

"I'm just saying, why do you make such a big deal about Dib when his sister is obviously such a bigger threat?" it asked.

"First of all, no female is superior to Zim!" the irate Irken snapped.

"I didn't use the word 'superior'," the Computer said.

"And secondly," Zim continued, ignoring the computer, "Dib is the bigger threat! The Gaz-Witch is too apathetic to be a threat. She never uses her abilities except when it involves her."

"Squeak!"

"Oh, and when the Dib-Worm annoys her. Good point, Minimoose."

"Hmm, maybe you can get her to get rid of Dib for you?" the Computer asked with a laugh, "You know, save you all that hard work?"

Zim opened his mouth, probably to shout again, but then his mouth shut and a faraway look came over his face. A few moments later, a smirk crossed his lips and he began laughing.

"Why Master laughing so much?" GIR asked, speaking up for the first time during the conversation (mostly because Minimoose had just managed to fix his voice box).

"That's brilliant, Computer!" Zim shouted, "It's about time being programmed by the genius brain-meats of Zim kicked in and allowed you to come up with a good idea."

"…What?" the Computer asked, completely confused.

"What you just said," Zim said with a wave of his hand, "I'll get the Gaz-Human and her skills working for me – her strength combined with the Zim genius of Zim shall make me unstoppable!"

"I was being sarcastic," the Computer began to say, only to get interrupted by Zim's maniacal laughter at his "genius" plan.

"This isn't going to end well, is it?" the Computer asked Minimoose.

"Squeak!"

"Yeah, that's what I thought," the Computer said with a sigh.

XXXXXXX

Four days later, Gaz was playing her Game Slave while sitting on the couch in her empty house; the house of course being empty due to the fact that Gaz had still been angry when Dib had returned from that Swollen Eyeball meeting yammering on about some recently captured Australian Chupacabra or something. Needless to say, he was now in the hospital with a broken leg and several fractured ribs.

Gaz smirked a little at that, but it morphed into a frown as someone knocked on the recently repaired front door. There was no way the pizza she'd just ordered was here already (as scared of her as the delivery service was, even they couldn't get to her house in less than four minutes), and it wasn't like she or Dib had any friends, so who was that?

Pausing her game and muttering threats to whoever was interrupting her, Gaz got to her feet and marched over to the door. Tacking a moment to crack her knuckles in anticipation of the pain she was about to inflict on whoever was on the other side of the door, the teenaged Goth then grabbed the doorknob and opened the door so fast it nearly popped off its poorly repaired hinges.

"Hi!"

"Squeak!"

Gaz paused and raised an eyebrow at GIR, standing on the doorstep in his stupid dog costume, and Minimoose, who was floating in front of her in his even stupider airplane costume. She groaned and crossed her arms over her chest in annoyance.

"Great, it's two-thirds of the alien moron squad," she grunted, "I thought I wouldn't have to deal with you idiots again so soon. What do you want?"

GIR opened his mouth, but nothing came out. A few seconds later, he shut his mouth and looked up at Minimoose with a confused expression.

"I forgot. What're we supposed to do again?" he asked, earning another groan from Gaz.

"Squeak!"

"Oh _yeah_. Now I remember!" GIR said happily. He then turned back to Gaz and opened his mouth again – and a cloud of aerosol-form chloroform was shot straight into her face.

Gagging in surprise, Gaz stumbled back, attempting to wave the gas out of her face. Unfortunately for her, the chloroform was already kicking in; her vision began darkening as she started swaying on her feet, and before she could even form a coherent threat, her legs gave out and she collapsed, blacking out as she hit the floor.

GIR gave a cheer as Minimoose launched a net from his antlers, which quickly wrapped around Gaz's prone body. The two robots then began making their way back towards Zim's base, dragging the unconscious teenager with them… naturally, no one noticed anything out of the ordinary.

XXXXXXX

Gaz groaned as consciousness slowly returned to her. Blinking to clear her blurry vision, she attempted to raise a hand to rub her throbbing forehead, only to find that she couldn't lift her arm. Confusion, frustration, and the subsequent anger brought her fully back to awareness, and she lifted her head to see what was going on.

She was lying on a metal table, cuffs locked around her wrists and ankles, pinning her in place. Judging by the machinery she could see around her, and the sudden memory of Zim's robots attacking her, she figured she must be in his lab.

"Zim!" she shouted, "Get your ass down here!"

A few minutes later, Zim's trademark evil laugh reached Gaz's ears as the Invader stepped out of the shadows and into her sight.

"Ah, hello Gaz-Slave," he greeted with a sneer, "Glad to see you're awake."

"I'm not your fucking slave," Gaz snarled, "Now let me go or I'll-"

"Yes, yes, you'll 'send me into a nightmare world', blah, blah, blah," Zim interrupted dismissively, "You're hardly in a position to be threatening anyone, human."

"When I get out of here…" Gaz hissed, only to be cut off again.

"By the time you get out of here, Gaz-Human, your only thought will be to serve the glory of Zim and the Irken Empire."

That gave Gaz pause, and she raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"And what is _that_ supposed to mean?" she asked.

Grinning nastily, Zim reached for something behind Gaz that she couldn't see, and when he came back into her sight he was holding a large helmet with a visor over where the eyes would be and a series of wires trailing out of the back and out of view.

"What's that supposed to be? Creative headwear?"

"Funny," Zim said dryly, "Zim is going to miss your sarcasm human… actually, no I'm not. As for your question, it's simple really. This helmet is connected to a machine that is going to reprogram you. Your ruthlessness and hatred for your fellow worm-babies is now going to work for me."

"You're going to _brainwash_ me?" Gaz asked, too stunned to be properly angry for a moment, before her rage kicked in and she began struggling anew against the cuffs.

"Keep your stupid machine away from me you space freak! I'm nobody's slave! And when I get out of here, I'm going to tear you apart limb by freaking limb!"

Zim ignored her, holding onto the helmet with one hand as the other reached into a compartment of his PAK and pulled out a rag. He shoved it onto the struggling Gaz's mouth and nose, and the smell of chloroform overwhelmed her again as she once again blacked out.

Smirking at the sight before him, Zim tossed the rag aside and lowered the helmet onto Gaz's head, positioning it so that the visor and audio receptors were securely over her eyes and ears. He then flicked a switch just above the visor, causing several small robot arms on the interior of the helmet to activate. They quickly grabbed hold of her eyelids, prying them open and leaving her eyes vulnerable to the subliminal messaging she would receive while asleep.

"Computer, begin," he ordered.

In response, the reconditioning machine activated with a hum, and Gaz's body started thrashing as her subconscious attempted to fight off the alien brainwashing. Unfortunately, while Gaz's mind was as tough as she was physically, it was still no match for Zim's machine. Within minutes, every memory Gaz had, her entire personality, everything that made her who she was, was completely erased.

Zim smirked as Gaz slumped into a prone state, the limbs that had been straining against the cuffs going limp. That was the sign he'd been waiting for; the device had finished stage one of the process, and wiped all of Gaz's memories. She was now a blank slate. All he had to do now was transplant into her mind all the knowledge that would be needed to establish her new identity.

With a flick of one of his fingers on the control panel, the machine entered stage two. The visor over Gaz's blank eyes began flickering as information flashed across it – had Gaz been self-aware at the moment, she wouldn't have been able to identify what she was seeing due to the speed at which it was moving. However, in actuality this part of the system was similar to the flash-training programs Irkens received in their youths; the information could not be discerned now, but in the future Gaz would be able to recall it perfectly and at will. This particular information being the most advanced combat skills known to the Irken Empire; combined with Gaz's natural fighting instincts (which Zim had programmed the machine to spare), she'd be unstoppable.

As the information played across the screen, a message began playing through the speakers built into the helmet. Normally, Gaz would be strong-willed enough to withstand this stage of the process, but with her mind wiped, she was defenseless as the Irken technology began warping her mind and building her new personality.

" _You are not an individual,_ " the computerized voice spoke into her ears, " _You are a servant of the Irken Empire; you exist only to serve your superiors. You have no ambitions of your own, you have no desires of your own, you want nothing other than to carry out your orders. It is the only thing that brings you joy; when you have no orders to carry out, you will do nothing but await further orders._

" _You are not a human being, and you have never been a human being. You are an Irken Biological Infiltration Unit. You were designed to match the appearance and biology of a human so as to hide amongst them, but you are a living Irken weapon. You exist only to help in the conquest of the planet designated: Earth. You are assigned to Irken Invader Zim, he is your superior and you will follow his orders without question._

" _Invader Zim has had your appearance modeled after the human designated: Gaz Membrane, sibling unit to Primary Mission Threat: Dib Membrane, for use of psychological warfare against him. You are not Gaz Membrane, and have never been. If anyone addresses you as such, it will have no affect on you, and you shall ignore them._

" _When Earth has been conquered, Invader Zim will decide your future assignment, and if he deems you no longer necessary for the service of the Empire, he shall terminate you. You shall accept such a fate without resistance, as you will no longer have a purpose._

" _You shall obey. You shall obey. You shall obey…_ "

XXXXXXX

Zim chuckled to himself as he sat in his command chair, looking at his new servant, who was standing almost lifelessly in the middle of the room.

Gaz now wore an impenetrable skintight bodysuit, over which was a set of battle armor. The main piece covered everything from her lower thighs to her shoulders, with the Invader symbol painted on the front. Pads covered her knees, with additional armor in the front spreading up and down, forming a shield for the sections of her legs that were unarmored for mobility. She had combat boots on her feet, heavy-duty ones with steel-tipped toes and short-range jets attached to the heels.

Her arms had a similar setup; shield armor spread out from her shoulders and from the elbow guards, protecting her upper arms while her gauntlets stretched to just short of her elbows. These gauntlets allowed for increased strength, and also had weapons hidden in the wrists… though her main weapon was now the blaster rifle the size of her arm currently strapped to her back.

She was also wearing a helmet of the same design as the one that had been used by the reconditioning machine. The reason for this was, on the extremely off chance that something caused a relapse to her original personality, the visor or the audio speakers would automatically readjust her. Those features would also allow the helmet to serve as a control mechanism, and even now were keeping Gaz in the trance state she'd been in since she'd had her memories wiped; Zim had had the Computer dress her in the suit before he woke her up, so as to further reinforce the illusion that she was in fact an Irken soldier/weapon.

Deciding that he'd been building up to it enough, Zim pressed a button on his armrest console. Something flickered across the helmet's visor, and Gaz blinked once as the blank look faded away from her face – however, instead of the detached, almost apathetic look she usually had, it was instead replaced by a look of cold, logical determination. Noticing Zim seated in front of her, she instantly snapped to attention and brought her right hand up in a salute.

"Irken Biological Infiltration Unit G-Alpha-Zero-1, reporting for duty, sir!" she said in a slight monotone.

Zim smirked at that; it was so satisfying to see the once dominating girl reduced to a drone just waiting to be ordered.

"State your mission," he ordered briskly.

"To aid you in your conquest of the planet designated Earth by using my physical similarities to the dominant species to gather information. And in times when it is necessary, I shall use all skills available to me to combat any and all threats, even if it means sacrificing my own life to protect yours," Gaz… or rather, the being who had once been Gaz, rattled off in that same monotone, making Zim's smirk widen even more.

Yes, this was going to work out just fine…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, did you all enjoy that?
> 
> Like I said, this is as far as I've ever been able to take this idea, which is a shame because I think it has so much potential. What would Zim do with a brainwashed Gaz? Would she break free of his control on her own, or would she need to be saved by Dib? If so, would he succeed, or would she defeat him, allowing Zim to win? So many possibilities...
> 
> Anyway, I'll probably be updating this collection every 2-3 days until it's all caught up (even then, that probably won't take long).
> 
> Until then, please comment!


	2. An Eldritch Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ms. Bitters has a meeting with an old friend, who's even more otherworldly than she is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the second entry in this collection, another one that was meant to be laying the groundwork for a full story that never came.
> 
> I've always wanted to do a crossover between Invader Zim and the Cthulhu Mythos; there's just something about the idea of combining IZ's dark comedy with the Mythos' cosmic horror that I find fascinating. However, I could just never piece together a decent story-length plot. The closest I ever got was this little idea, which popped in my head while thinking over the concept, and it just worked.
> 
> Read and enjoy!

Ms. Bitters raised one wrinkly eyebrow at the sight before her. A human sized mass of flesh and flailing tentacles, topped by a flaming tri-lobbed eye, sat curled around a chair at one of the tables in the Skool's staff break room, which oddly enough had an old-fashioned tea set on it. However, Ms. Bitters' attention was instead drawn to the floor, where the Skool janitor was curled up in a ball, hair and eyes having gone white from shock, and foam spilling out of his mouth as he babbled incoherently.

"Was that really necessary?" she asked, pointing to the unfortunate janitor.

"It is not my fault his mind couldn't handle my visage," Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, messenger and soul of the Outer Gods, replied despite his lack of a mouth. Grabbing the teapot with one tentacle, he offered it to Ms. Bitters, "Tea?"

"No," she replied bluntly, slithering over to another chair and settling down on it.

"Suit yourself," he said with a wave of tentacles that passed for a shrug, before pouring the tea directly from the pot and onto his flesh, where the liquid was quickly absorbed.

"Couldn't you have taken one of your human forms?" Ms. Bitters asked, glancing to the janitor, who had started banging his head against the floor, "I don't really care, but whenever we lose a janitor, I'm the one who has to pick a new one."

"Apologies," Nyarlathotep said, sounding halfway sincere. With a wave of his tentacles, the tea set vanished as if it had never been there. Folding his tentacles into a relaxed position, he leaned forward so that his eye was level with her.

"So, Hecate my dear, why did you summon me?" he asked.

Ms. Bitters responded by punching Nyarlathotep in the eye so hard that it detached from his body and slammed into the wall, splattering into a pool of… well, "blood" wasn't the right word. Blood doesn't squirm and move with a mind of its own.

"Was it something I said?" the voice of the Crawling Chaos asked, seemingly coming from the air itself as the ichor on the wall reformed into the tri-lobed eye and floated back to its spot on its body.

"Don't play stupid," the old crone hissed, "I know you guided that stupid green pest here. He's got the smell of your influence all over him."

Nyarlathotep chuckled, a sound that would have driven the only human in the room insane if he hadn't been already.

"Ah, yes. Young Zerninim, one of my pet projects."

"Zerninim?"

"It's Zim's full name," Nyarlathotep said with a sigh, "I don't understand why he insists on the short version – why wouldn't he want a name that means 'world destroyer'? I'll never understand these mortals."

"Get back on topic!" Ms. Bitters snarled, "Why did you bring him here?!"

"Well, when his leaders sent him on a wild goose chase into the depths of space, I figured I'd guide him here," the eldritch abomination explained, "I've been having such fun whispering ideas to him – it's so easy to plant thoughts in the minds of the mad – that I figured it would be a shame not to try him out here on my favorite playground."

"But why send him to _me?_ " Ms. Bitters snapped again, "It's bad enough I have to deal with the rest of these maggots every single day, but ever since he showed up…"

"I thought you could use the entertainment," Nyarlothotep responded nonchalantly, "You're always complaining about how boring things are around here, after all. I don't know why you're annoyed."

"I'm not annoyed, I'm aggravated," Ms. Bitters hissed, "I've been stuck in this building for over a century, teaching generation after generation of these idiotic worms, and what do you do? You send me someone who's more annoying than all of them put together!"

"Mind your tone!" Nyarlothotep growled. All light and heat seemed to disappear from the room, and Ms. Bitters felt a rare shudder go down her spine, "Do not forget to whom you speak. I am the will of Azathoth given form; the whole of Creation is at my feet. Do not whine to me about your petty little problems. It is not my fault you were bound to this land, or that the humans decided to build a skool around you. You have my sympathies, but bear in mind that you are still better off than most of our brethren – you could be sealed away in a deathless slumber like Cthulhu or Hastur, or bound in the Void like Y'golonac or your mother Shub-Niggurath. You still have moderate freedom, and an endless supply of mortals to torment, even if they are children, whom you despise so much. You are one of my favorites among our kind; unlike most of the others, you share the amusement I feel in toying with these lesser creatures, the fun that helps pass along the ages. Therefore, I will overlook your insolence on this matter to remind you that this situation of yours is merely temporary – soon, the insects that are the human race will be wiped out in a glorious blaze, and this world will be our paradise once more."

"You've been saying that ever since you helped Oppenheimer crack the atom," Ms. Bitters seethed, "I'm still waiting on that nuclear winter."

"I got close in '62."

"And then Kennedy – a mere human I should remind you – defused the situation."

"Which is why I had the Mi-Go assassinate him," Nyarlothotep chuckled, "You really must invest in some minions. They can be quite useful at times. Speaking of which, whatever happened to that pet Shoggoth I gave you a few decades ago?"

"Oh, I keep it in the Underground Classrooms," Ms. Bitters replied dismissively, "I just feed it the really annoying students ever now and then to keep it content… wait a minute, how did we get to talking about this? I called you here about Zim!"

"Oh, calm down, Hecate," Nylarthotep said with a laugh, "If you get anymore wound up, your human skin will rip off. And as for Zerninim, like I said, I thought you'd find his chaos entertaining, but you shouldn't have to deal with him much longer. You see, when I say that the end of this world is near, I _mean_ it – I've conferred with Yog-Sothoth, and he assures me that soon, the stars shall be properly aligned. Cthulhu will rise from R'lyeh, awaken the rest of the Old Ones to consume this world, and then they shall bring forth the Court of Azathoth from the center of the universe, so that the Outer Gods will reign once more.

"And more to the point," Nylarthotep concluded with what passed for a smirk, "the seals binding you to this place will be broken, and you will be free to kill every child on this planet, if that's what your black heart desires. Satisfied?"

"…Fine," Ms. Bitters reluctantly replied, "But I reserve the right to rip the little green bug apart if he keeps getting on my nerves."

"Fair enough," Nylarthotep said, "Now, if this is settled, I'll be on my way; I have work that's needed elsewhere."

And with that, the Crawling Chaos disappeared in a flash of light, leaving no sign that he had ever been there.

"Drama queen," Ms. Bitters muttered, before turning her attention to the maddened janitor, who had started chewing off his tongue. With a weary sigh, she got up, grabbed his leg, and started dragging him out of the room.

The Shoggoth was probably hungry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all liked that, even if it was on the short side.
> 
> With any luck, some day I might follow up on this. Probably not, but maybe.
> 
> Oh, FYI - the whole thing with Zim having a longer name, and its meaning, comes from the now sadly defunct and deleted "Both Syllables" series.
> 
> Please comment!


	3. Eviler Than Thou

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the events of "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom", the Halloweenies undergo a change in leadership.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one came about as a result of me thinking over the IZ Halloween episode and noting a particular character missing from the ranks of the Nightmare World.
> 
> Read on to see him in action.

Nightmare Bitters hissed in pain as she emerged back into her home dimension and hit the ground hard, the portal to the real world she'd forced open slamming shut behind her. She took a moment to collect herself before getting back on her feet/hooves; looking around, she saw that her minions had managed to finish off the robot that Zim had used to enable his and Dib's escape, and were all now looking at her in confusion and worry.

"Hey, what happened?" one of them asked, "How come you came back instead of opening the portal for the rest of us?"

"Did the humans have some kind of superweapon they used on you?" another asked.

Nightmare Bitters shuddered as she remembered what she had seen on the other side of the portal, especially that green, bloated thing in the cul-de-sac.

"That place… was _awful!_ " she snapped, to the confusion of the other Halloweenies.

"Huh?" one of them said, blinking the eyes covering his body, "I thought you said it was a wonderful place that we could destroy and torment?"

"Well, I was wrong," Nightmare Bitters reluctantly admitted, earning a shocked gasp from the crowd, "The real world is twisted, horrible, and filthy! It makes this place look like a paradise!"

"But… you said we could have a whole other world to play in," a child-sized Halloweenie pouted, tears forming in her red eyes.

Nightmare Bitters smacked her aside into the crowd, knocking several others over, as she made her way out of the alley.

"Oh, stop your whining," she snarled, "I'll think of something else. Just leave me alone for now."

With that, she pushed her way past the rest of the crowd, making her way back towards her lair at the Nightmare Skool. She was so wrapped up in her anger at the situation that she didn't hear the discontented grumbling among the other Halloweenies. Nor did she notice the glowing red eyes narrowed in malicious delight as they watched her crawl away from the shadows.

XXXXXXX

A while later, Nightmare Bitters sat slumped on her throne, wallowing in self-pity and anger. She'd been so close to moving her people on to a new world, and she'd failed. Now all they had left was this ruined wreck they'd destroyed, and they were stuck with it.

She was pulled from her musings at the sound of doors opening and feet, hooves, tentacles, and other appendages moving across the floor. Looking up, she was surprised to see the Halloweenies entering the chamber in mass, quickly filling up the room. None of them said anything, and even more disconcerting, they weren't trembling in fear, as they usually did around her.

"What is this?" she snapped, "I didn't summon any of you."

"No," another voice hissed, " _I_ did."

Nightmare Bitters' eyes narrowed in rage at the figure that stepped forward, the crowd parting to let him pass.

"Zim," she snarled, "I thought I told you to never show your face here again."

Nightmare Zim's Joker-like grin pulled back, revealing more of his shark-like teeth than normal. He chuckled darkly as he crossed his long, mantis-like arms behind him, resting comfortably on the arachnid legs protruding from his back and supporting his legless torso.

"Oh, you did," he said, "But after your spectacular failure earlier, I was able to convince the others that it would be in their best interests for me to come back into the fold… and for you to, shall we say, retire."

"WHAT?!" Nightmare Bitters roared, jumping up and stretching to her full height. However, only a few of the assembled monsters pulled back in fear; the rest stood their ground and glared at her.

"You lied to us!" one shouted, "You said that the human world was our only escape, and then you made us give up on it!"

"What are you yapping about?" Nightmare Bitters growled, "There is only this world, and the real world."

"Wrong," Nightmare Zim said as he slowly walked closer to Nightmare Bitters' throne, arms still behind his back, "You see, the Large Headed One was not the only one studying looking into other worlds. I've spent plenty of time since you exiled me studying the same possible means of our escape, and you know what I've found? There are an _infinite_ number of alternate universes for us to make our way into. And most of them really are the pristine preying fields you were expecting on the other side of that portal you were so obsessed with. I've very nearly perfected the technology that will let us move from world to world, destroying at our whim. And all I've asked for in return is for the others to declare me their absolute ruler."

"Over my dead body!" Nightmare Bitters snarled, launching herself at Nightmare Zim.

"That's the idea," the twisted Irken replied, as he whipped one of his arms out from behind his back, revealing it to be clutching a plasma blaster. Nightmare Bitters' eyes widened, but before she could alter her movement or act to defend herself, the weapon discharged. The burning hot bolt of energy hit her dead center, the force sending her flying to crash into her throne.

Nightmare Bitters coughed up blood as she weakly clutched the wound in her chest. Nightmare Zim smirked as he lowered the blaster, smugly glaring down at his rival.

"Oh goodie, I was hoping that wouldn't finish you off," he said, his demented smile growing as he snapped the claws on his free hand.

A blur shot out of the crowd of assembled Halloweenies and hit the ground in front of Nightmare Bitters. The wounded monster found herself staring into the bulging red eyes of a robot the size of a great hound, wrapped in strips of green fur.

"GIR. Dinner," Nightmare Zim ordered with a laugh.

Nightmare GIR's mouth opened, revealing row upon row of razor sharp teeth, as it let out a combination of a roar and a demented giggle. And then, before Nightmare Bitters could do anything other than scream, the robot descended on her.

Most of the assembled Halloweenies looked away in disgust as their former leader was torn apart, happily refocusing their gaze on Nightmare Zim as he turned and started leaving the room.

"When he's done, throw what's left of her in the Pit of Fire-"

"Uh, she renamed it the Realm of Eternal Screaming and Restlessness," one of the Halloweenies cut in.

"…That's stupid," Nightmare Zim said after a moment of silence, before continuing, "Anyway, throw what's left of her in _there_ , and then join me in my lab. I'll have the new portal ready soon.

"And Happy Halloween!" he added with a laugh as he exited, leaving the Halloweenies to watch as Nightmare Bitters was devoured.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry for the short length, but again, that's part of the reason for this anthology.
> 
> So, seriously, am I the only one who's ever wondered why there wasn't a Nightmare Zim in Dib's nightmare world. I mean, there's nightmare versions of pretty much everyone else (if you closely, there's even a Nightmare Nny), but not of Dib's archenemy? That always just struck me as weird.
> 
> Anyway, hope you liked my little interpretation of what he might be like.
> 
> Please comment.


	4. Comic Continuation #1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Follow-ups to a few issues of the Invader Zim comics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love the IZ comics. They're a great continuation of the show canon. That said, they tend to rely on a lack of continuity to an even greater extent than the show ever did, which kinda bugged me on a certain level.
> 
> So, here's my take on what could have happened after the events of the first few issues of the comic series, written in order to get the characters out of situations that they're inexplicably fully recovered from by the following issue. And also one that just feels like a much needed stinger to the plot.
> 
> You probably will have had to read the comics to fully understand these scenes, FYI.
> 
> Read on!

**Issue #2 Continued. Or, How Zim Got Off The Gargantis Array.**

The massive transmitter station known as the Gargantis Array loomed over the squadron of Irken ships zooming towards it. They barely stopped in time, all but slamming into the station. Attaching themselves to the station, they quickly laser cut holes through the hull, into which the Irken soldiers emerging from the ships jumped, entering the station.

After arriving inside, the Irkens fanned out, securing the area. Once they were sure they weren't facing any imminent danger, a few set a perimeter, while the rest to turned face their squad commander.

"Alright, listen up!" Lieutenant Noob announced, "You all know why we're here. This station has been confirmed as the source of that awful broadcast of that disgusting alien exercising in order to get back into shape that's being played on loop across every network in the galaxy."

The Irkens all shuddered at the mention of the horrible, mind-scarring images everyone in the Empire was being forced to endure.

"Have you seen the part where it finally gets the chair to detach from its butt?" one soldier whispered to the one standing next to him.

"Dude, don't mention it! I've been trying to _not_ see it!" the second soldier replied, elbowing him in the squeedlyspooch.

"The horror," a third soldier standing behind them muttered, shuddering in disgust.

"Quiet!" Noob snapped, "We're all disgusted by the broadcast, and that's why we're here. By order of the Tallest, we are to destroy this station, not only to stop the transmission, but also to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. So, we are going to plant antimatter charges throughout this station and then blow it to atoms. First squad, stay here and guard the ships, the rest of you come with me. Move out!"

With that, most of the Irkens ran out of the room, save for a half-dozen who took up positions around the room, watching the exits keenly. As such, imagine their surprise when a voice suddenly spoke up from behind them.

"Hey, hey, hey! Who are you?"

The squad jumped, and turned around to see who had somehow managed to sneak up on them. And then their eyes bugged out as they found themselves facing the most infamous Irken in the universe.

"Well? Zim asked you a question!" The Defective Invader demanded. The squad Sergeant blinked in shock for a moment, before composing himself and responding.

"We're the first platoon of the Imperial Special Response Division, and the Tallest have sent us here in response to the transmission being broadcast from this station-"

"Oh, so the Tallest sent you here to congratulate me on my plan?" Zim interrupted, "Hmm, well, I suppose they _would_ be too busy to do so in person…"

"What? No, we're here to halt the trans- wait a minute, what plan?" The Sergeant started to respond, only to trail off, eyes narrowing, at the last comment.

"My ingenious plan to humiliate that irritating human worm-baby Dib by broadcasting that disgusting footage of him across the universe," Zim said proudly, while also making it sound like it should have been obvious.

"Wait, _you_ sent out that video?" One of the soldiers demanded, while the whole squad glared at Zim, "It was horrible!"

"Yes, I know, that was the point," Zim said dismissively, ignoring the death glares he was getting, "And it worked brilliantly, as to be expected from the genius of Zim! Unfortunately, the stupid human damaged my ship and stranded me here. Hmm, I suppose I'll just have to salvage from your ships to fix it."

"Now hang on right there!" The Sergeant demanded, "You can't just walk in here and commandeer our ships for spare parts! We are an elite unit of the Armada-"

"Yes, yes, good for you," Zim cut the Sergeant off again, clearly not caring what he was saying. Instead, the Invader pulled out and activated a communicator, "GIR, come to me at once!"

"So, can we just shoot him?" One of the soldiers asked the Sergeant, "I mean, it is his fault this all happened, anyway, so wouldn't it count as part of the mission?"

"Plus, think who we're talking about," another soldier added, "The Tallest would probably promote us all for finally getting rid of him."

Before the Sergeant could reply, the sound of roaring engines came echoing down the hallway. The squad turned to face it just in time for them all to be bowled over and scattered like bowling pins by a certain insane SIR Unit, who smacked through them as he flew through the room. GIR landed in front of his master and saluted, eyes red. Zim, for his part, ignored his minion for a moment to look over the other Irkens, who had all been knocked out by GIR flying through them, a look of mild annoyance on his face.

"Sleeping on the job? Pft, typical so-called elites, so lazy," he muttered, before turning to GIR, "Well, GIR, as usual it looks like we'll have to do all the hard work ourselves. Go grab the Voot's wreckage and drag it in here, while I start grabbing components from the ships up top."

"I don't wanna!" GIR replied, eyes turning blue. Zim glared at him, and after a moment his eyes flashed red again and he zoomed back the way he came. Zim watched him go, then shrugged and jumped up into one of the openings in the hull and started routing around the ship attached to it.

A few hours later, Lieutenant Noob and the rest of the platoon came charging back into the room.

"Alright, the charges are set and the detonator's primed," Noob announced, holding up said device, "Everyone evac to the ships, and then I'll- what the?"

The platoon skidded to a stop as they processed the sight that greeted them. First squad was still mostly knocked out, though a couple of them were starting to groan their way back into consciousness. More important, however, was the vast array of machinery that had clearly been ripped out of their ships – as evidenced by the sparking wires and cables sticking out of the infiltration holes in the hull – and the Voot Cruiser sitting in the middle of the room that certainly wasn't there before, atop of which sat a blue-eyed SIR Unit and the most hated Irken in the Empire, who was just putting away some welding tools.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Noob shouted. In response, Zim barely glanced at the platoon, before hopping down into the Voot.

"Well, obviously I'm using your ships to repair mine so that I can leave," Zim replied flippantly, as he powered the Cruiser up.

"You can't do that! We have to-"

"Yes, yes, I'm sure that whatever you're doing is important, but nothing is more important than Zim's mission, and I must return to it!" Sim announced dramatically, before giving a small wave, "So, you know, thanks and bye."

"Stop him!" Noob commanded, "We can't leave with our ships scrapped like this!"

The platoon charged forward, but just before they could reach the Voot, its engines roared to life and discharged. As it zoomed off, the energy wave sent the whole platoon flying back to land in a heap. As they did, the detonator went flying out of Noob's hand; his eyes widened in fear as they watched it fall through the air, until it hit the ground in a way that depressed its large red button, a frantic beeping starting to sound out as a result.

"Aw, _blitznak_ ," Noob muttered, as the beeping reached a crescendo.

The Voot Cruiser, which had exited the Array through one of the entry holes, was barely a light-minute away when the Array was ripped apart by several massive explosions. The central bulk of the station was all but vaporized, while the various transmitter towers were sent flinging away into space, even as they were ripped apart by more explosions.

"Hey, what gives?!" Zim demanded, "Stupid fools! Don't they know how hard I looked for this place? And they just blow it up like that? Oh, they are so dead next time Zim sees them!"

GIR, who was playing with a rubber pig, didn't respond, instead waving the toy around and making oinking noises.

"Hmph," Zim muttered after a moment's thought, "Oh well. The mission was a success, at least - the Dib has been thoroughly humiliated in front of the whole universe. That'll teach him to get in Zim's way. Let's go home, GIR."

"I'm gonna sing the Doom Song now!" GIR replied happily, "Doom, doom, doom, doom…"

Zim's eye twitched, even as he set the Voot to hyperspeed and began the long trip back to Earth.

The long, _long_ , trip.

XXXXXXX

**Issue #3 Continued. Or, How The Star Donkey Didn't Destroy The Earth.**

Dib desperately clung to the lamppost he'd been thrown against, Zim beside him likewise clinging to a fire hydrant. People and objects flew through the air around them in the maelstrom kicked up by the planet's rapid movement. And all the while, the Sun grew ever larger, consuming the horizon as the Earth flew ever closer to it, running headlong down a path towards its fiery destruction.

He couldn't believe it. Of all of Zim's evil plans to destroy the world, the one he failed to stop was the one where a giant space donkey got summoned by a bad modern art display and kicked the planet into the Sun? That was just so stupid!

The only consolation he had was that at least Zim would be killed too when everything on the planet was incinerated. And judging by Zim's screaming, he was realizing himself that he hadn't thought this through properly. Though all things considered, that was rather a hollow comfort.

Dib shut his eyes to block out the now all-consuming light, though that didn't work for very long, as the light soon seeped through his eyelids. Then, there was a sudden flash of heat, and Dib was convinced this was the end… but just as suddenly, the heat passed, as did the light burning its way into his retinas. A few moments later, the wind died down, and Dib dropped to the ground as the moving Earth finally came to a stop.

Rubbing his head from where he'd slammed against the lamppost, Dib blinked his vision clear, confused as to why he wasn't dead. Looking around, his confusion grew as he saw that except for a fine layer of soot covering everything, there was no apparent damage from the trip through the sun.

"Uh, what just happened?" someone asked from the crowd, which was starting to pick itself up, "Weren't we just flying into the sun?"

"Yeah," someone else asked, "Shouldn't we all be, you know, dead?"

"I can explain that!" a familiar voice called out. Everyone looked up and started murmuring excitedly as a hover-screen floated over the crowd, bearing the image of Professor Membrane.

"Clearly, the sudden impact the planet suffered caused it to begin moving at such velocity that it moved through the Sun too quickly for the solar flames to catch on and burn us," the Professor stated.

"Uh, that doesn't sound right," a bystander commented.

"Who's the scientist here, you or me?" Membrane demanded. When the bystander didn't reply, Membrane harrumphed and continued, "As I was saying, we were moving at such velocity, that not only did we not burn up, but by the time our momentum was used up and we came to a stop, we were safely on the other side of the Sun."

"But Professor, what caused all this to happen?" the reporter who had been covering Zim's "art" display asked.

"Well, obviously it was a comet. Or possibly an asteroid."

"What?!" Dib practically shrieked, catching everyone's attention, "Dad, it wasn't a comet! It was the Star Donkey that Zim summoned! Literally everyone here saw it happen!"

"Insolent art-hating fool," Zim protested, popping up next to Dib, "That was no Star Donkey, it was, uh, a hologram created by my art. For true art must be interexplotive!"

"It was no hologram!" Dib said, glaring Zim down, "And stop making up words!"

"It was too! And I'll prove it by doing it again!"

"Seriously?" Dib asked, deadpan, "We all almost died, you included, and you want to do it again?"

"Indeed, pathetic worm baby," Zim smirked, "Now, prepare for-"

"Wait, you're going to just repeat yourself?" One of the art critics in the crowd scoffed, "That's pretty lame."

"No it's not," Another critic piped in, "He's clearly doing a series, in order to satirize the repetitive nature of art trends."

"What do you know, you no-talent hack?" The first critic asked.

"I'm the hack? You're one to talk, you mainstream sellout."

"Mainstream?! Why you little-!"

Zim and Dib could only stare in surprise and confusion as the crowd suddenly and spontaneously burst out into a riot, everyone shouting out their own views on art while beating each other senseless. Before long, the Museum of Natural History Museum itself was up in flames, the Star Donkey summoning display torn down and destroyed.

"…Huh," Dib said after a moment, shrugging, "Well, I'm just going to go ahead and take this one as a win."

"That's what you think!" Zim declared, "For you see, Dib, my true plan has succeeded!"

"Come again?" Dib asked, eyebrow raised.

"Behold, human, how I have caused your people to turn on themselves merely by manipulating their love of art!"

"What about the Star Donkey?"

"That was a decoy! A decoy, I say!" Zim shouted, fists planted defiantly on his hips.

"…" Dib merely stared at Zim for a moment, disbelief on his face, before turning to the rioting crowd. "Hey guys! Shminvader Shmim over here says you're all morons who can't grasp his art!"

Zim's eyes bugged out, before he screamed and ran off, being pursued by the angry mob, now united by the perceived slight.

"Curse you, Dib! Curse you!" Zim cried out as he disappeared over the horizon.

Dib, for his part smirked smugly and walked away whistling, while behind him, GIR emerged from the burning building unharmed, happily poking at a pen in his hand.

"Let's go to my house, pen!" GIR said, humming to himself as he walked off, leaving the burning building behind him.

XXXXXXX

**Issue #4 Continued. Or, How The Tallest Didn't Get Exploded, And Zim Got Out Of That Hole.**

The _Massive_ drifted through space, dinged up and burnt, but otherwise undamaged. Which was more than could be said for the countless planets, stars, and whatnot whose remains now composed the (pun not intended) massive debris and dust cloud through which the ship now floated. Considering half of the universe had just exploded, it was actually quite a beautiful and serene sight, actually.

Onboard the ship itself, things were significantly less serene. Consoles and light were smashed and broken, cables were hanging out of everywhere, several small fires had broken out, and most of the crew were either unconscious or just barely regaining consciousness.

The latter case included the Tallest, who were partially buried by a mound of spilled snacks and a few bridge technicians. Red came to first, shoving a techie off of him and, shaking his head to clear it, looked around to take in what was happening. See Purple lying face down in a pile of spilled dipping sauce nearby, he frowned and poked his co-ruler in the side.

"Hey," he said, continuing to poke, "Pur, wake up."

Purple awoke with a snort, and then began flailing around for a moment, before pulling his face free and coughing out the sauce that had been accidentally inhaled. Red lightly smacked him on the back a few times to help out, and after a few seconds Purple calmed down. Spitting the last of the sauce out, Purple turned to Red.

"Thanks. What happened?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Red responded, frowning, "I remember Zim sending that garbage backs to us through the wormhole thingy, then a flash of light, and then waking up here like this."

"Oh yeah, now I remember," Purple said, before pausing, eyes narrowing in thought. "But wait, how come we didn't get blown up, then?"

"I can explain that, my Tallest," a voice spoke up. Both Tallest turned to the source of the voice, finding it to be Engineer Skrang. His intellect-boosting container of Vortian brains was cracked and leaking fluids, but otherwise the engineer looked unharmed.

"You see, my Tallest, at the last moment I was able to redirect the wormhole generator so that the exit point and subsequent energy surge would manifest nearly a parsec away," Skrang explained, "I would have sent it farther away, but I was pressed for time."

"So, half of space didn't explode?" Purple asked.

"No, it did," Skrang said, "But fortunately, we were _just_ across the line from the half that exploded and in the half that didn't. So, we got hit by the shockwave, but were spared total destruction. Oh, and I checked, and we were lucky - neither Irk nor any of the other important planets in the Empire were in the half of space that was destroyed. Uh, we might have lost a few Invaders, though."

"Speaking of Invaders, what about Zim?" Red asked, practically snarling the name of the Defective who had done this, "Is he dead?"

"Sorry, my Tallest, but no," Skrang replied, "It doesn't look like Earth was in the destroyed half either."

"Well then, let's call him," Purple said, frowning, "I want to make him _hurt._ "

"First thing's first, though," Red said, matching his partner's frown as he glared at Skrang, "Guards! Throw Engineer Skrang out the airlock!"

"Wait, what?!" Skrang exclaimed, as a pair of guards appeared and grabbed him by the arms, "My Tallest, please, there's no reason for this."

"Of course there is, this is all your fault!" Red snapped.

"Yeah," Purple agreed, "If you hadn't built this stupid wormhole machine, Zim wouldn't have been able to almost blow us up with it!"

Skrang continued to plead, even as he was dragged away, but the Tallest ignored him, instead focusing on the communications screen, which was on static standby mode.

"My Tallest, we're having trouble establishing a communications link with Zim's base," a bridge technician announced, "It appears his base is still in Compression Defense Mode."

"Then send an override signal then," Purple ordered, "And someone get some Janitorial Drones up here to clean up this mess!"

Meanwhile, on Earth, Zim still sat scrunched up inside the cube that was his compressed base, which still sat at the bottom of the hole left by the base when it compressed. He was practically immobilized and had lost feeling in most of his body, couldn't see much besides what was directly outside the viewing hole, had to use the bathroom, and his antennae were itchy. But none of that mattered - all that mattered was that he had successfully kept the Munchitronic Deathskrang out of the hands of the mysterious enemies who had tried to steal it from him. He only hoped that the Tallest had been as successful in protecting themselves from these enemies…

Suddenly, he was made aware of a buzzing sound. Before he could process it, the cube began vibrating and shaking. Just as Zim realized what was happening, the cube exploded outward as the base decompressed, reforming into its previous state, leaving Zim lying in a heap on the floor of the main control room.

As Zim tried to process what had just happened, the communications screen came to life. Looking up, Zim was greeted by the sight of the Almighty Tallest.

"My Tallest!" Zim exclaimed, shakily but quickly getting back to his feet and snapping a salute, "I'm so relieved to see that you've successfully repelled the enemy! Did you receive the Deathskrang okay?"

"Oh, we got it alright," Red said, words laced with a menace that the oblivious Invader completely missed.

"Well, I'm happy to have done my part," Zim said, before leaning forward greedily, "Does Zim get a reward now? Gimme!"

The Tallest exchanged a look, before turning back to Zim with matching smirks.

"Yes, Zim, we're going to reward you now," Purple said, "And here it is - an honorary mallet pummeling!"

"Eh?" Zim asked, blinking. And then the Probing Day mallets installed into the base emerged from the walls and began smacking him.

"Gah! Ah! Aah! Thank you my Tallest- Gahaahhh! I am humbled to receive this honor- Ah, my spine!"

The Tallest looked on and smiled, clinking their sodas together and sipping together as they watched with glee.

XXXXXXX

**Issue #5 Continued. Or, What Should Have Happened To Gaz At The End.**

Gaz brushed off her hands, checking out the hole in the wall she'd just thrown her brother through. That jerk – how dare he beat her at one of her own games, right after she'd been gracious enough to decide he'd learned his lesson and let him out of the Console? Hmph, well, if he hadn't learned his lesson after all this, maybe she should just toss him back in?

Meh, she was tired. She'd sleep on it.

"I'm going to bed. Good night dad," she said.

"Good night, daughter!" Membrane replied, not seeming to have noticed or cared about his daughter throwing his son through the wall, "I won't be here in the morning, so would you mind reminding your brother that the damage to the wall is coming out of his allowance?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Gaz replied, not really caring. She marched up the stairs to her room and entered, slamming the door behind her. However, before she could do anything else, there was a sudden blinding flash of light. Blinking both in surprise and to instinctively shield her sight, Gaz rubbed at her eyes to clear the spots away. And when her vision returned, she was greeted by a surprising sight.

Floating in front of Gaz were three beings. They were vaguely humanoid in nature, except that they were each lacking legs, and were glowing just brightly enough that she couldn't make out any real details about them other than their outlines. The one in the middle floated slightly closer to her, and began speaking in an echoing baritone.

" _Gazlene Membrane of Dimension 3489-TYG-90,_ " it announced, " _We are officers of the Interdimensional Justice Enforcement League._ "

"Good for you," Gaz snarled, "Now get out of my room!"

The IJEL officer ignored her and continued, " _You stand accused of multiple counts of illicit and reckless creation of cross-dimensional portals and the subsequent destruction of the dimensions that those portals opened to, one count of seizing control of a foreign dimension by force, three counts of terminating natives of said dimension, and one count of illegally transporting a native of your dimension to said dimension by force for the purpose of enslavement and torture. How do you plead?_ "

"Seriously? You putting me on trial?" Gaz snorted, crossing her arms, "Then, yeah, fine, I did all that, but it was the only way to get my brother to learn his lesson about leaving me alone while I'm playing my games. I didn't do anything wrong!"

The three beings turned to face each other and seemed to silently converse for a moment before turning back to her.

" _Very well then,_ " the apparent leader spoke again, " _You are hereby found guilty as charged. Sentencing shall be carried out immediately._ "

"Wait, what?! That's it?!"

" _Normally it takes longer,_ " the entity on the left chimed in, " _But you did just admit your guilt in the accused crimes._ "

"I didn't do anything wrong!" Gaz repeated, fists clenching.

" _We heard you the first time,_ " the entity on the right said, " _And honestly, the fact that you don't see anything wrong in destroying whole dimensions just to prove a point, is just digging a deeper hole for yourself. So just stand down and accept what's coming._ "

Gaz merely growled, eyes bugging out in anger.

"Security!" she all but screamed. Her automated dolls came to life, various weapons deploying from their limbs, but before they could leap into action, the lead IJEL officer waved an arm. There was a flash of light, and the dolls fell over, their eyes going dark as they powered off. Gaz gaped at that, and before she could react, the lead officer waved its arm again.

There was another flash of light, and Gaz suddenly found herself suspended in the air, inside of a floating orb of light. Gaz was frozen in surprise for a moment, and then she began angrily pounding on the orb's interior surface.

"Let. Me. Out!" she shouted.

The only response the IJEL officers gave was to raise their arms in unison. There was another blinding flash of light, and when it cleared, Gaz was given another surprise. The three beings, and the orb she was trapped in, were floating in mid-air above the Console, the massive computer tower at the center of the gamer-dominated dimension she'd taken over and trapped Dib in.

"What are we doing here?" she demanded.

" _We believe in making the punishment fit the crime,_ " the lead officer replied, " _And while normally the destruction of even one universe would warrant a death sentence, given your underage status, first time offense, and the fact that you clearly don't clearly comprehend what you've done, we shall go lighter on you. Instead, you will merely be forced to suffer the same torture you went through all this trouble to put your brother through._ "

Before Gaz could process what that meant, the leader waved his arm, and she found herself flying backwards as the bubble burst around her. She flew through the air for a moment, and then stopped with a slam. Her vision swam, and before it could clear, she felt something enclose around her entire body beneath the neck, immobilizing her.

When she could see again, Gaz looked down, and her eyes widened in alarm as she saw the pod marked "NPC" she had been trapped in. Head shooting back up just in time for the door to the chamber to slam shut, she shot her most venomous glare at the beings still floating outside.

"You can't stick me in here!" she screeched, "I'm not a damned NPC!"

" _Well, that'll just be our little secret, won't it?_ " the entity on the right gloated.

"Every gamer in this dimension knows who I am! As soon as they realize what you've done-"

" _It doesn't matter, actually. As soon as you abandoned this dimension with your brother, another gamer stepped up to fill the void you left as leader,_ " the entity on the left said, " _I believe you know his counterpart in your dimension. Someone named Iggins?_ "

Gaz's jaw dropped, while the leader continued for his colleague, " _And in any case, you won't be played by any normal gamer. No, to fully suffer as your brother suffered, you will be at the gaming mercies, of_ **_him._** "

The leader pointed, and Gaz's gaze followed, her eyes widening in panic as she realized who was going to be controlling her inside the games.

"The barrel is lie! Do a cake roll!" the alternate GIR giggled, still strapped into the game controls she'd put him in so he could play with Dib.

"No, no, no! You are not doing this to me! Do you hear me, you mother-!" Gaz's curses were cut short as the pod she was in activated, dropping a VR helmet on her head and sucking her into a game.

" _Well, that settles that,_ " the lead officer said.

" _So, how long do we leave her in there?_ " the one on the right asked.

" _I think an amount of time equivalent to how long she trapped her brother, plus half again as interest for her other crimes, will sufficient,_ " the leader mused.

" _You know it doesn't really matter,_ " the one on the left said, watching a screen depicting a fighting game, wherein Gaz – transformed into an Amazonian figure – was being forced to punch herself in the face repeatedly, " _Thanks to the time dilation field, we can leave her here however long we want, and whenever we return her to her own dimension, it'll be as if no time has passed._ "

" _Still, best not to leave her here too long, or we risk crossing over into going too far,_ " the leader replied, " _The duration of the punishment has been decided. We will return when it is done. Let's go._ "

And with that, the officers left, leaving Gaz to her fate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, yeah, the last one was mostly just me feeding my dislike of Gaz, but I dare anyone who's read Issue 5 to say with a straight face that it wasn't her at her worst and that she doesn't deserve some payback for it.
> 
> Sorry that the Issue 3 and 4 follow-ups were on the relatively shorter side, but they were all I could come up with.
> 
> Hoping I get back to doing more of these one day, and that you all enjoyed these in the meantime.
> 
> Please comment!


	5. Zim's History Report

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A taste of what Zim's schoolwork looks like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This little gem is my favorite entry in this collection to date. It just popped into my head one day, and I just had to write it. Sorry for how short it is, but I think the content makes up for it.
> 
> Fair warning, some of what Zim says here might be a bit racially offensive. I don't share those views, it's just how I think someone like Zim would interpret things.
> 
> Read on!

_History of the You-Knighted States of America_

_By_

_The Amazing Zim!_

In 1492, Columbus Ohio sailed across the ocean to prove to the other humans that the Earth wasn't flat, which should have been obvious. But all humans are stupid, Columbus was just slightly less stupid. Still stupid, but not as stupid.

Anyway, Columbus sailed west, and found the Americas. He then went back to tell everyone how stupid and wrong they had been, so they named a holiday after him. Then everyone else crossed the ocean and colonized Fraggle Rock, carrying out an Organic Sweep of the inferior natives and then celebrating by eating turkey. Everyone was very happy, except the natives, but they were dead, so no one cares.

But then the Red Coats came, conquering the Americans and forcing them to pay taxes and drink tea. But the Americans didn't like tea, so they threw it in the ocean and rebelled. This was a long and glorious war that ended when George Washingmachine crossed a river and beat everyone up. After this, he declared himself ruler of the new country and named the capital after himself, building monuments in his honor, which is what every ruler should do.

After this, America gloriously conquered the rest of the continent, having wars with England and Mexico. But then people in the north got upset over the south having slaves, even though it's normal for the strong to rule the weak, so they had a civil war. This war ended when President Lincoln Logs won the Battle of Gettysburg and foolishly freed all the slaves, which got him shot afterwards.

America continued to grow even more powerful over the following years, such as when Teddy Bear Roosevelt beat up the Spanish on a hill in Cuba, after which he became President. But America's true triumph came when it cleverly stayed out of the First World War, letting all the Europeans beat each other senseless so that they could swoop in and be the heroes, as well as the only country who still had infrastructure left. This left them in prime position to take over the world. But then they banned alcohol, which made everyone so depressed that all the bankers jumped off window ledges, which destroyed the economy.

It was at this point that a wheeled cyborg known only as FDR came to power. He seized control of the country and put everyone to labor in order to get them to shut up about food lines in all the cities and the giant bowls of dust in the Midwest. And when that didn't work, he got into the Second World War, for some reason allying with the weak forces of democracy instead of the clearly superior powers of fascism. And then he was killed and replaced by his Vice President Harry Truman, who dropped nuclear warheads on Japan, and declared America the new rulers of the world.

Unfortunately, the Russians also had nukes and challenged the Americans in a cold war, fought through proxies for the next fifty years. Despite some near misses, the humans on both sides decided for some reason not to engage in the amazing wonder of a war that would destroy half the planet. And then the Russian government fell apart because they were all pathetic and stupid, leaving America the only superpower again.

Since then, America has fought some other wars in parts of the world no one really cares about, but have never really been challenged again. In short, they are more powerful than any of the other humans, but would still be destroyed by a superior alien armada, no matter what the filthy, lying movies say.

The End. Now praise Zim's impeccable historical research!

_Zim, this report was pointless dribble. But, that just means you captured how pointless the history of this country has been. B+ —Miss Bitters_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that. And here's something to ponder - is this just the result of Zim not paying attention in class, or this how things actually happened in the IZ universe? Riddle for the ages, my friends.
> 
> Again, I apologize if Zim's blunt views on the treatment of Native Americans and slavery were offensive, I just felt that's how an insane alien from a warmongering empire would see things. Even so, I didn't go into American military involvement since the end of the Cold War, since I couldn't think of even the slightest way to spin any of that as funny without being definitely, outright offensive.
> 
> Anyway, hope you all enjoyed it.
> 
> Please comment!


	6. Reality Ensues #1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dark take at what could have been after the end of "Planet Jackers".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we go. This is the last of the currently-existing entries in this anthology, and this one has a bit of a story behind it.
> 
> Originally, this was going to be a collection of apocalyptic scenarios featuring the IZ characters, but in the process of trying to think them up, I somehow found myself focusing on the ending of "Planet Jackers", and how it's a blatant example of the series' negative continuity brushing consequences of events under the rug without any explanation.
> 
> So, here's a look at what I think could have happened if IZ wasn't protected by the rules of television.
> 
> Warning: This is going to get pretty dark.

Zim had succeeded. He'd fought off the Planet Jackers, and saved the Earth from being thrown into the sun, all without them being any the wiser to his outwitting them. Now he could strut triumphantly back to Earth, lick his wounds, and then get back to the all-important task of ensuring that he was the one who brought about the destruction of Earth and the humans living on it.

He needn't have bothered.

After all, the Earth had been dragged light years off course, and left drifting in orbit around a completely different sun. The sudden earthquakes from the planet's movements had already caused plenty of damage before this point. But now, on top of that, thanks to the new orbit, the Earth found itself a lot closer to its new star; already, ambient temperatures were skyrocketing, blanketing even areas in the middle of winter with massive heat waves.

There was also the rather glaring fact that the Moon had _crashed into the planet_. The Jackers' Dyson Sphere that had been containing it had kept it from shattering and sent it safely back into orbit, but the impact of several hundred billion tons of rock had still done its damage — the largest earthquakes ever recorded leveled mountains and cities, and massive tsunamis swept inland, wiping away coastal areas and changing the visible shapes of landmasses. Billions died, and this was just the beginning.

Over the next several months, human civilization all but collapsed. What little infrastructure had survived the catastrophes was unable to care for all the wounded and displaced, and the waves of destruction and overall climate changes had killed off countless food supplies, livestock and crops both, leaving nowhere near enough to feed the still sizable global population. Before long, most of the remaining population centers had been torn apart by angry mobs and rival warlords fighting over scraps of food, water, and medicine.

And through it all, Zim sat within his still-intact base, observing everything with mixed emotions.

On the one hand, watching the humans destroy each other was hilarious. On the other, the fact that he'd had nothing to do with it was aggravating. So as such, he was rather torn on how to react — sit back and let them be destroyed, or once again save them so that he could be the one to destroy them?

Paralyzed by indecision, and focused on the larger picture, Zim was blind to what was happening much nearer by. The city around him had survived the initial disasters mostly intact, and under the guidance and resources of Professor Membrane and his company, had managed to keep hold of stability and civilization. It was by necessity a ragtag and borderline dictatorial society, but it was still a better alternative to the chaos of the scavengers and warlords outside the city whom Membrane's security forces constantly struggled to keep at bay.

And then there was the matter of Dib. He and Gaz had survived the extensive disasters and crises through a combination of luck and the benefits of being Membrane's children. After all, while the Professor might not be the world's greatest parent, he at least had the scientific understanding that he had to preserve his biological lineage (especially in light of the ego boosting fact that he alone was keeping the last semblance of human civilization afloat, so obviously his genes were worth preserving).

While Gaz was content to stay in the survival bunker at the heart of Membrane's command center, whittling away her days in her surviving games and what was probably the last pizzas on Earth, Dib dedicated himself to more practical actions. He aided in the organization and distribution of food and medical supplies, personally helped in the building of shelters and restoration of surviving infrastructure, and even helped in the designing and building of weapons for the defense of the city.

As a result of this, Dib found himself in an utterly unprecedented situation — people actually liked him. His determination and hard work towards being the protector of Earth, now taking the form of keeping as many people alive as he could, was enough to make people forget their previous views of him as crazy and delusional. Now, they saw him as an altruistic, selfless hero, who worked around the clock to provide for his fellow men and women. Needless to say, this was quite a turnaround for Dib, and something that took quite a while for him to wrap his head around.

But when it did, that was when things really changed. Dib had been so busy with just trying to help people survive, that he had practically forgotten that Zim even existed. And then one day, while overseeing the rebuilding of a power plant, he happened to spot GIR wandering the rubble, apparently completely oblivious to the devastation around him. At that sight, Dib's mind had suddenly snapped back to its previous setting, and he'd quickly chased after the robot, eventually following him back to Zim's base.

Despite everything that had happened, Dib was surprised to find that Zim's security still completely sucked. He was able to just walk right in, and he was able to take pictures of everything, including a very surprised Zim as he emerged from the lower levels. He had then run for his life, camera clutched to his chest, as he was chased off the property by Zim's gnomes. Zim, as was his nature, panicked at the thought of being exposed, though this time it was tempered somewhat by the impression he was under that all the other humans would be too distracted by their fight for survival in this new world to listen to Dib's usual rantings.

This would prove to be a disastrous mistake.

Zim was making preparations to sneak into Dib's house (not even aware he wasn't living there anymore), when an angry mob appeared outside his base. As it turned out, due to the new heroic status, not to mention the fact that some sort of exterior force was clearly responsible for what had happened, people were much more willing to believe in the supposedly crazy things Dib kept saying. And as such, not even the ever skeptical Professor Membrane was willing to dismiss out of hand the photographic evidence his son now presented. The fact that it also provided a convenient scapegoat for all the horrors that had been inflicted on the world was also a factor.

It was ironic, really, that after all the times Dib had been blamed for things he had nothing to do with over the course of his private war with Zim, that he would finally gain vindication by exposing Zim over something the Irken was completely innocent of. Not that either Dib or Zim was considering this, as the former's mob clashed with the latter's security.

To call it a battle would be a vast exaggeration. The mob was mostly composed of civilians reduced to a ragtag skeleton of existence by society's collapse, armed with whatever they could scramble together — guns, knives, clubs, bats, Molotov cocktails, even just random pieces of debris they'd picked up on the way to Zim's base. As such, they were in no way prepared to properly fight against the Invader's defenses; many were cut down by the lawn gnomes alone. It was only when Membrane's heavily-armed security forces arrived that the tide was turned.

Soon, the gnomes were so much smoking scrap being stomped beneath the mob's feet, as they moved a makeshift battering ram into place and proceeded to go to work on breaking down the base's front door. It took longer than any of them would have liked, but soon it was shattered, and the mob poured into Zim's living room, where they were promptly set upon by GIR, the Robo-Parents, and several weapon installations that descended from the ceiling.

The robots did surprisingly well, especially considering they weren't even trying. The Robo-Parents seemed to think they were hosting a dinner party, and kept trying to feed and entertain their "guests", which apparently meant tossing around everything not bolted down, including the attackers themselves. And as for GIR, he was zooming around, treating the whole thing like a game, only doing any damage by accident, like knocking people over or grabbing and shaking their weapons at the wrong moment.

In the chaos of all the fighting, Dib slipped away from the rest of the crowd and dived down one of the passageways to the lower levels of the base. He ran from one end to another, searching for his nemesis, and eventually found him in the hanger bay, prepping the Voot Cruiser for an emergency takeoff. It seemed that, delusional megalomaniac or not, Zim was still just bright enough to realize when he was in a situation he didn't have a chance of winning, and was trying to make a tactical retreat.

What followed could have been called a final showdown between archenemies, but that would be generous. In truth, it was simply two people who hated each other and were finally placed in a situation where they could settle matters between them once and for all. It was a brawl, pure and simple, punches and kicks flying between them, and even an excessive use of biting thrown in for good measure.

It's impossible to say who would have won in the end if it had just been left up to the pair of them. But the fight was interrupted by the arrival of one of the Membrane security troopers, having wandered further down the base as parts of the mob broke off from the main fight with Zim's robots in search of anything else to vent their anger on. Spotting the alien menace that they'd all come to confront, the soldier froze in shock for a moment, then whipped out his laser rifle and fired, hitting Zim square in the side.

It wasn't a fatal wound, but it became clear in an instant that it was debilitating enough that Zim wouldn't be able to fight anymore. And for that brief moment, a battered and exhausted Dib allowed himself to bask in the thought of finally achieving victory. More to the point, he thought of all the good that could be done with the technology at the Irken's disposal. They might even be able to undo some of the global devastation, restore human civilization to some semblance of what it had been before the planet had been moved.

Dib was so caught up in the thought of what he could do with Zim's technology, that he didn't notice Zim himself weakly raising an arm, a bracelet-like device sliding out of the sleeve. It was only when Zim spat a final, angry Irken curse in Dib's general direction that he turned his focus back to the Invader, just in time to see him press the button on the bracelet.

That was the last thing Dib ever saw, as Zim's quantum bomb self-destruct detonated. Within seconds, the entire base had been vaporized, along with the rest of the cul-de-sac and several surrounding blocks, leaving nothing but a glass-lined crater.

In the days that followed, Dib would be martyred by the remnant of the city's population, who viewed him as humanity's lone champion against the alien villain who had destroyed the world. Not that they had much of a chance to venerate him much, as the loss of so much of both the work and security forces meant that the fragile society that they had already been reduced to nearly collapsed totally, through a combination of having almost no one to do all the work needed to serve as civilization's foundation and the external warlords and scavengers trying to take advantage of the now vastly undefended city.

And in the end, even all of this was utterly irrelevant. For even while all this drama played out, the Planet Jackers who had stolen Earth to begin with reached their home system and realized that the planet they'd attempted to drag to their dying sun was gone. Just as quickly realizing that that annoying Irken must have stolen it from them, they began backtracking their path to find it. And when they did, the nearly extinct human race didn't even notice as their world was once again encapsulated and dragged off to their doom.

But then, it didn't really matter whether they noticed or not, did it? The world had been doomed from the moment the Jackers first grabbed it. It had just been a matter of time...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See, warned you it was dark. But oddly, that just made it that much more fun to write.
> 
> Like I said, this is the last of the existing entries of this collection. If I ever get around to writing more, it'll be posted here alongside being posted on FFN.
> 
> Until then, please comment!


	7. Post-Florpus Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A collection of character POVs following the end of "Enter the Florpus".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here's something that just came to me after watching the awesome Zim movie on Netflix.
> 
> Obviously, there'll be spoilers for the movie. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED "ENTER THE FLORPUS" YET.

**Zim**

As Zim watched the Computer repair the hole in his roof from where that pug had broken through after falling from orbit (and the other hole from when GIR had shot the stupid thing _back_ into space), he reflected on the past week, which had been interesting even by his _incredible_ standards. Successfully tricking Dib into becoming a sad, disgusting chair-blob, embarrassing himself in front of the Tallest by forgetting Phase 2 of his plan, falling into despair upon seeing that the Armada wasn’t coming (and the Tallest really needed to have words with whoever was responsible for that navigation mistake), and then being inspired for his greatest plan ever, actually seeing it almost completely succeed before Dib and his stupid family ruined it, destroying poor Lawrence and the other robots in the process.

But Zim got the last laugh, didn’t he? He’d always have the memory of Dib realizing he’d inadvertently inspired Zim’s grand plan, and Dib was now stuck with that stupid pudding clone of his parental unit, so ha! Oh, and he’d also stolen that porcelain puppy clown doll thing from Dib’s house, so that was a bonus. That made up a little for what had happened to Lawrence and the others.

Not that the Tallest needed to know that the doll wasn’t his goal all along. He wouldn’t want them thinking he was some kind of _failure_ , after all. And fortunately, they’d certainly seemed pleased, judging by all that yelling they were doing during that funny puppet show they were putting on when he’d called. Heh, they sure did love their puppets; he still remembered that time they even used giant puppets of themselves, back during the whole Tak situation.

The fire had been an interesting new touch, though.

Anyway, he supposed as he tossed the dog doll aside (let GIR eat it, for all he cared), he supposed he’d earned himself a little break. The pitiful humans would still be rebuilding after the damage caused by that Florp Hole or whatever it was called, and it was no fun destroying something that was already destroyed, so he might as well give them time to build everything back up so he could knock it down again later. And as that had been his most epic plan ever, he’d need time to recharge his brilliant brain-meats before coming up with something even more amazing to destroy Dib and conquer Earth with.

In the meantime, he was staying in the lower levels, where the pug would be unable to hit him if it fell through the ceiling again.

XXXXXXX

**Dib**

Watching the city’s reconstruction efforts from the damage caused by the Florpus was oddly therapeutic, Dib thought as he sat perched atop his roof, looking on as debris was swept away and buildings pieced back together.

A part of him wanted nothing more than to run down and start yelling at people how they needed to now accept that everything he’d been saying for years was true. Another part of him, one that he’d started listening to more often lately, acknowledged that that was just his ego talking, which was more interested in getting people to heap praise on him for his accomplishments rather than in the good he was trying to accomplish in the first place. Which, he’d realized with a significant level of discomfort, made him extremely similar to Zim.

Besides which, he could tell it’d be a total waste of time. Just by checking the news, he knew that the general population was going with the explanation that everything that had happened — the Earth being moved through space, the appearance of the Irken Armada, the alternate realities inside the Florpus — had all been a mass hallucination created by a malfunction in the Membracelets. Dib couldn’t begin to understand how that explanation made any kind of logical sense, especially in light of all the physical damage left behind, yet at the same time he wasn’t too surprised by it, given the average person’s ability to ignore or rationalize anything strange and unusual. For them, it was easier to believe that experimental technology had gone wrong rather than admit that aliens were real.

Ah well, let people believe that if they wanted. The world was safe, and that was what mattered. And if people’s only reaction to that was going to be a few lawsuits against Membrane Labs for all the damage, so be it. Dad had access to the best lawyers money could buy, after all, and he had more important things to focus on. And maybe that was the thing that was really making him happy as he sat there — the fact that he really did have something good come out of this mess other than beating Zim.

For so long, Dib had wanted to prove that the paranormal was real (which these days meant proving Zim was an alien) so that he could finally get some respect and appreciation. And while getting that in general would be nice, where he really wanted that from was his family, who were always so emotionally distant from and dismissive of him. Well, now he finally had that — sure, Gaz had only admitted she cared in her tough, roundabout way, and it was annoying that Dad still thought everything with Zim and the Florpus was a hallucination, but still. He had a family that did love and support him, even if they weren’t the best at showing it, and for once Dib had a home life he couldn’t complain about.

…Er, except for Clembrane. Seriously, he could do without having a pudding-obsessed clone that looked like his dad crossed with some kind of exotic fish hanging around. If nothing else, he knew Foodio 3000 would be a lot happier without having pudding added to every meal.

But hey, his sister had admitted she didn’t hate him, and his father had made it clear he was proud of him. If being stuck with Clembrane was the price of that, he could live with it.

And if everyone else was going to continue to ignore Zim’s threat even after all this… well, how was that different from normal? At least now he knew his family would have his back, which gave him all the inventive he needed to keep going, no matter what.

He just needed to avoid fusing with any more chairs in the process.

**XXXXXXX**

**Professor Membrane**

It was hard for a genius to admit when he was wrong. Probably because it was something that so rarely happened, being the most intelligent human being alive and all. But, this was one of those rare times that Professor Membrane did have to say that he’d made huge mistakes when it came to his son.

Oh, not about dismissing his love of all that alien nonsense. That was all a waste of time, no matter how many intense, concussion-induced hallucinations he had about the subject. No, he simply regretted just how harsh he’d apparently come across as in the process of trying to get Dib off that foolish path.

The thought that his own son believed that he didn’t care about him broke Membrane’s heart. All he’d ever wanted was for Dib to apply the superior intellect he’d inherited in a proactive way; real science was the only way to change the world for the betterment of all mankind, not studying imaginary monsters like aliens or Bigfoot or vampire bees or ghost werewolf Frankensteins or whatever else they were discussing on those ridiculous websites. Not to mention that that sort of nonsense was just going to lead to ridicule and mockery, and was probably why Dib didn’t have any friends.

That being said, perhaps he shouldn’t have been so dismissive of Dib’s beliefs? Looking back, the Professor realized it might have been a better course of action to feign support of Dib’s beliefs, and from there slowly wean him off of them. Maybe even employ some reverse psychology to help him realize how silly that paranormal stuff was. Instead, he’d just bluntly cast aside everything his son believed in, in such a way that it made it seem like he was casting him aside as well, which was the last thing he had intended.

The worst part was that it had taken a bizarre hallucination of fighting robots for control of a tiny purple moose in order to save the Earth from total destruction for him to realize where he’d gone wrong. How could a genius such as himself have failed to see how he was psychologically harming his eldest child?

Well, that was all done now. While he may never approve of Dib wasting his time on all this paranormal stuff, he was not going to continue making him feel ashamed of it. Let him study all that stuff now, and with any luck by the time he got to college, or even high school, he’d have gotten it out of his system and moved on to real science. And when that time came, Membrane would be sure to not gloat about it.

In the meantime, he had more important things to focus on. Like how the Membracelets had malfunctioned in such a way as to make the whole world share his hallucination. Or where that bizarre clone of himself had come from, and what to do with it.

Actually, maybe he’d just focus on that one. Foodio 3000 might revolt Terminator-style if they all had to put up with pudding at every meal for much longer.

**XXXXXXX**

**Comms Officer**

He should have just turned the damn ship, he knew. Communications officer or note, he was primarily a navigator, and that meant that it was his responsibility to maintain the safe travel of the Massive while it was flying. Which in this case meant he should have changed course to avoid the Florpus Hole, but no, the Tallest had insisted on staying on a straight line, no matter the result.

And what was the deal with that, anyway? Tallest Purple, he could understand being that lazy and stupid, but Tallest Red was supposed to be the smart one! If it had just been about blowing up Earth to finally get rid of Zim, that was understandable, yet even after the Earth disappeared he hadn’t listened to reason, instead just sitting back as the Armada flew to its doom.

Of course, he did have to admit that at least some of this was his own fault. As said, he had the responsibility of piloting the Massive, and he’d actually recognized the threat for what it was, so he should have done something about it. Why the hell hadn’t he?!

…No, wait, he knew perfectly well why. If he’d changed the ship’s course without the Tallest’s permission, especially when they’d given orders to the exact opposite, he wouldn’t have had to worry about getting sucked into the Florpus, they would have thrown him out an airlock. And if there was anything an Irken valued more than snacks or their loyalty to the Empire, it was their own life, so he’d decided to take his chances with the horrible reality-bending of the Florpus over the certainty of being tossed into the void.

So it was that he now found himself here, in a dimension where he and everyone else in the Armada had been transformed into a living puppet, and everything was perpetually on fire. Though, he had to admit that it was kind of funny to see that in the case of the Tallest, considering their love of puppets. Almost made being a puppet himself and constantly burning worth it.

Not entirely, of course. The fire was very painful.

But in any case, if this was going to be how he spent the rest of eternity, he wasn’t going to sugarcoat it. He’d lacked the spine to defy orders when he should have, sure, but that didn’t absolve the Tallest of their stupidity. Or Zim, for that matter, since he was the ultimate cause of all this, as he was with most of the Empire’s other problems. And if the Tallest had wanted to blow him up to finally get rid of him, why couldn’t they have done that years ago and saved everyone a ton of trouble!

Ah well, no point crying over it now, when it wouldn’t change anything. All he could do was just sit and wait, and hope something happened to get them out of the Florpus. Then… well, he still wouldn’t dare call out the Tallest to their faces, but he’d definitely still be thinking it!

In the meantime, he’d just sit here, cross his puppet arms, and try to ignore all the fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably could have done more characters, but I couldn't get into Gaz or the Tallest's heads, no one sane could get into GIR's, and a Clembrane POV would probably just be a treatise on pudding.
> 
> Please comment!


End file.
